Retracing Baptists in Rhode Island: Identity, Formation, and History

Abstract

Ever since Roger Williams organized his renegade colony in southeastern New England, Rhode Island has played an important role in American Baptist history. Retracing Baptists in Rhode Island is a thorough institutional history of Rhode Island Baptists from 1635 to the present. Using a multitude of published and unpublished documents, J. Stanley Lemons traces the histories of multiple denominations, many congregations, famous ministers, influential educators, wealthy benefactors, and political leaders. He makes a major contribution to understanding of Baptist history in the Ocean State. Lemons divides his study into four sections (Awakenings, Transformations, Divisions, and Remakings) that gradually proceed from the colonial era into the present. Several major themes stand out. First, Rhode Island was the center for Baptist activity prior to the First Great Awakening in the 1740s. Second, other than a common grounding in “believer's baptism,” “soul liberty,” and “congregational autonomy,” Baptist groups and denominations have argued about...